.. _app-dev-introduction:

============
Introduction
============

:Author:    Stefan Eletzhofer
:Date:      |today|

Introducing *nexiles|elements apps*
===================================

Prerequisites
=============

OSX
---

http://cdn.sencha.com/cmd/6.0.0.202/jre/SenchaCmd-6.0.0.202-osx.app.zip
https://www.sencha.com/legal/gpl/ -> check mail, click download link


Win
---

http://cdn.sencha.com/cmd/6.0.0.202/jre/SenchaCmd-6.0.0.202-windows-64bit.zip
https://www.sencha.com/legal/gpl/ -> check mail, click download link


App Directory Structure
=======================

To create a app, we first need to create a app directory structure.  The
proposed standard structure looks like so::

    .
    ├── docs
    ├── src
    ├── static
    │   ├── css
    │   ├── images
    │   ├── js
    │   └── resources
    └── vendor

The directories have the following roles:

**docs**
    The documentation for the application.

**src**
    The source files of the application.

**static**
    The application *runtime directory*.  This directory will contain
    all runtime resources and dependencies needed to run the application.
    This directory will be *packed* and *upload* to the Windchill server.

**vendor**
    This directory contains all external resources, frameworks etc.  The
    build system will copy the dependencies to the *runtime directory*.

Build System
============

To build apps in an consistent and save manner, we have choosen to use
**CoffeeScript** -- see http://coffeescript.org.  The build system uses a
`Cakefile` to compile and assemble the app.


Quickstart
==========

:Prerequisites: nexiles.tools.api and its prerequisites

Let's assume that we want to create a new web application using
nexiles.tools called 'finder'.  To do so, we first instantiate a
template from the server using the 'app-create' command::

    $ nxtools app-create --name finder
    Created `finder` application form template `template`.

This created a folder in the current working directory called 'finder'
and populated it with the contents of the template web application
from the server.

.. note:: the server side application template contains a fully functional
   web application which may e.g. be styled according to some CI rules.

We now have some template code locally to work with.  We now can
get started to develop the application.

An *example* of an application structure might be::

    .
    ├── app
    │   ├── controller
    │   │   └── APPController.js
    │   ├── model
    │   │   └── APPModel.js
    │   ├── store
    │   │   └── APPStore.js
    │   └── view
    │       ├── APPGridPanel.js
    │       └── Viewport.js
    ├── app.html
    ├── app.js
    ├── bom.json
    ├── build
    │   └── template-app.zip
    ├── img
    │   └── gruenerpunkt.png
    ├── meta.json
    └── vendor
        ├── ext-all-debug.js
        └── ext-all.css

    8 directories, 13 files


The net effect is that we have a fully functional base example to work
with.

For now, let's imagine we altered the code -- we now want to upload the new
app.  To do so, we issue the `app-upload` command and specify the `finder`
directory -- the directory whioch contains our application code::

    $ nxtools app-upload finder
    Created new iteration of `finder`: -.1

The command packaged the application and uploaded it to the server, creating a new
iteration of it.  We're now able to `preview` it::

    $ nxtools app-open finder

This will open a new web browser serving the application `finder` in it's newest
iteration.

.. vim: set ft=rst tw=75 nocin nosi ai sw=4 ts=4 expandtab: